Wow, did we move fast on this tour. It was really hard to get some decent WiFi, much less find a few minutes to sort your thoughts and feelings of different days. So I sit writing this post from Paros enjoying a little frappe and sea breeze to get me motivated.
After Cairo, we had made our way to the train station to take an overnight bus to Aswan, the southernmost point of interest along the Nile. Like we said before, it was expected to be a rough trip. After we saw multiple trains pull in beforehand each packed to capacity and guys hanging off the side of the train cars, we only hoped that our car would be a little better. What we got was actually fairly spacious and we each had our assigned seats. We ate the food we had brought to make our dinner and tried to get some rest on the bumpy ride. We slept only a short while and arrived at our hotel exhausted, hungry and sweaty. An hour to refresh we were due to start touring again. Jen stayed in with a bit of a stomach bug and I made my way to the Nasser Dam, the second largest dam in the world that regulates the Nile and its annual floods. Then there was the unfinished obelisk, which if completed, would have been the world's largest obelisk at a whopping 33 meters. The project was abandoned because of a problem with the sandstone. The highlight of the day was to see the Philae Temple, a Graeco-Roman temple of considerable size and beauty that a had remarkable history in past and present. During the creation of the Nasser dam, the man made lake that resulted mistakenly encompassed the area of this temple. In a massive effort to preserve the temple, some 15 years were spent on relocating nearly 40,000 ancient blocks that range from 1 to 5 tons and moved to a nearby island that was shaped to resemble the original site structure. The pictures below were of a temple that was disassembled and put back together half a mile away! Incredible.
After plenty more elbow shoving to get out of the temple grounds, I made my way back to the hotel to find a much healthier and rested Jen. We grabbed some dinner and then it was an early night's rest for us. The next day we got up early to make our way to the felucca that Jen wrote about. It was a simple sailboat that operates on a single boom and rudder, perfect for the always calm Nile. Feluccas range in size because of their purpose and in the old days, they operated as transports for goods and soldiers. Nowadays, all they do is take eager tourists for a simple Nile cruise, while those who opt for more comforts and fine food, take the large steamboats. We ate and slept on the boat, but not before having some beers with the other guests, asking our guide a bazillion questions about Muslim culture and having a little party on the beach, drums, bonfire, swimming and all.
Ring around the rosie, this ain't.
Sunrise on the Nile
The next day, we were dropped off at a small beach and seemingly randomly led through some bushes up the highway. We were told to wait there for our cab right on the side of the highway and sure enough, a small bus packed full of people pulled up and we squeezed in.
It was going to be a 4 hour ride to Luxor and we luckily were put on the bus with the most maniacal, ill tempered driver I've seen in a long, long time. When he wasn't spitting tobacco and sunflower seeds, he was talking on two cell phones at once, passing trucks on blind corners and just being a general menace. We stopped at Edfu Temple and Luxor Temple that looked just like it (they tend to blend together after a while).
We got some rest and the next day we did the Valley of the Kings (photos not allowed), a series of tombs that were tucked away in the mountains to help thwart robbers. It was here that the famous King Tutankhamun's tomb was found untouched til 1922. The reason it wasn't found, is that it was probably forgotten about since King Tut only ruled a short ten years after he ascended to the throne at the age of 9. Historically, he would have been a simple footnote in Egyptian history, but because he was one of the sole tombs found untouched, his tomb artifacts dominate the exhibits of the Egyptian museum. It leaves many historians to wonder that if a young unimportant boy-king had such a splendid tomb, what were the great kings honored with?
We then visited the valley of the Queens and the temple of Queen Haetsheput that Jen wrote about.
We later got to visit Karnak Temple, which is the largest temple complex in all of Egypt. The temple saw continuous additions over nearly 1,500 years! Every king wanted to make their mark and outdo the last guy in terms of hieroglyphic storytelling, monuments and sheer size of their own statues. Must be a guy thing. This temple was the most important in all of Egypt, because it was dedicated to Amun-Ra, the greatest of the Egyptian gods and the one who granted kings their power, so obviously, he was a favorite. The pictures really don't do the size of everything justice, but just imagine all the other temples and then double everything. It makes sense that this temple was worked on year round for nearly 1,500 years... That's dedication.
There were hundreds of columns this size!!
Sacred priest pool. Lucky bastards.
After Karnak, we were offiically "templed" out and had to hurry to make our bus to Hurghada. We made a single stop at a touristico bazaar and restroom area. There was a goat riding a donkey, being trailed by a camel and just had to get a photo.
We arrived late to Hurghada, which apparently was a resort town that caters to Russian tourists. Everything was in either Russian, Arabic and sometimes English. Hurghada in the early 90's had been a small fishing village, but due to the popularity of the clear waters and excellent scuba diving, combined with some ambitious Russian developers, the place turned into a sprawling resort town. Dozens of hotels are in various stages of completion and the building boom is incredible as workers and cranes seem to stand on every corner. When we arrived at our very modern hotel, we were given a number of options to either go on a safari, snorkeling or dune buggy racing, but we immediately signed up for the scuba diving adventure in the Red Sea.
The water was simply see through and very warm, almost like bath water. The Red Sea is generally very calm and warm, which caters to a thousands of species of fish and coral. We quickly donned our scuba diving gear and sank to about 15 meters. I got to try out my new underwater digital camera cover which worked amazingly, despite being a little tricky to handle at times, but I was able to get some great shots.
We had to get a shot with the ParosLife magazine for the monthly photo contest.
After diving all day, we made our way around the cheesy nightlife a little and got a good night's rest. We made our way back to Cairo on an overnight bus. The next day we got a grand tour of the Egyptian Museum (no photos allowed once again), which house the artifacts of King Tut's tomb, numerous well preserved mummies and thousands of lost pieces of civilization back then. Truly a wonderful museum to see if it were better lit and perhaps a bit more spacious as you have to once again elbow your way to see anything worthwhile.
The next day, we took our separate flights and made our way home to a very excited puppy and my wonderful dad who was staying for two weeks! Thankfully, we had just missed a week of rain on Paros and we brought the Egyptian sunshine to our little island!
